CAIRO: A judicial official says four HIV-positive men have been convicted of being homosexual and sentenced to three years in prison followed by three years of close police supervision. The official said - on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press - that a fifth man without HIV was also convicted and received the same sentence. The defense lawyer for the five, Adel Ramadan, said the judge convicted the men of the "habitual practice of debauchery, a term used in the Egyptian legal system to denote consensual homosexual acts. According to Human Rights Watch, the lead prosecutor told a lawyer for the defendants before issuing the latest indictment that the men should not be allowed to "roam the streets freely because the government considered them "a danger to public health. More than 100 human rights groups have slammed the trial and described it as mainly driven by ignorance and fear of AIDS, warning that it could undermine HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in Egypt. In a letter to the Health Ministry and the Egyptian Doctors' Syndicate, 117 international organizations, led by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW), said that doctors who helped interrogate men jailed on suspicion of being HIV-positive violated their own medical ethics, and their conduct led to a breach of trust in a privileged relationship. "Doctors must put patients first, not join a witch-hunt driven by prejudice, said Joe Amon, HRW director of the HIV/AIDS program. The signatories include international and national organizations working on issues of health and human rights, and defending the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS. According to HRW, 12 men have been arrested since October 2007 in a spreading hunt for people suspected of being HIV-positive. "The arrests began when one man, stopped on the street during an altercation, told officers he was HIV positive. Police arrested him and the man with him, beat and abused them, and began picking up others whose names or contact information they found through interrogating the first detainees, HRW reported. All the men were charged with the "habitual practice of debauchery, a term which in Egyptian law includes consensual sexual acts between men. According to HRW, Doctors from the Ministry of Health subjected all the detainees to forcible HIV tests without their consent. The organization said the Forensic Medical Authority performed forcible and abusive anal examinations on the men to "prove they had had sex with other men. A prosecutor informed one of them that he had tested positive for HIV by saying: "People like you should be burnt alive. You do not deserve to live. In addition to reports of abuse while in detention, the prisoners who tested HIV-positive were held in hospitals, chained to their beds, for months. After a domestic and international outcry, the Ministry of Health ordered the men unchained on Feb. 25. "It is unacceptable for doctors to perform forcible HIV tests, or to examine people to 'prove' offenses that should never be criminalized, said Malcolm Smart, director of the Middle East and North Africa program of Amnesty International. "Doctors who engage in or enable human rights abuses are violating their most elemental responsibilities. -AP with additional reporting by Daily News Egypt
